Product Description
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mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Come join the family for the
hilarious and critically accled breakout hit of the year!
Featuring an all-star cast led by Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vargara,
Julie Bowen, and Ty Burrell, Modern Family takes a refreshing and
funny view of what it means to raise a family in this hectic day
and age. Multi-cultural relationships, adoption, and same-sex
marriage are just a few of the timely issues faced by the show’s
three wildly-diverse broods. No matter the size or shape, family
always comes first in this hilariously “modern” look at life,
love, and laughter.
.com
----
The handheld, observational, fake documentary format complete
with character interview segments has become a sitcom device so
familiar and accessible, thanks to the success of The Office and
Parks and Recreation, that it doesn't feel at all like a rip-off
in Modern Family. In fact, the technique seems to be entirely its
own in this fresh, smart, and very funny show that premiered to
immediate accl in 2009. Three affluent Southern California
households--the Delgado-Pritchetts, the Dunphys, and the
Pritchett-Tuckers--thrum with uproarious life and bustling
activities showcased in pithy episode arcs that are neat, if not
always tidy. The homes and lifestyles are glossy and well
ordered, yet simultaneously full of the chaos and commonplace
confusion that make up real life for real modern families
everywhere. Each of the 10 personalities in the ensemble is
expertly nuanced, a feat that should be credited not only to the
show's creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, but also to
actors who have without exception been impeccably cast. Each one
takes care to bring the tiniest detail of comic shading to their
abundant interaction and to the equally important element of
their own personal and wildly idiosyncratic character business.
Ed O'Neill plays patriarch Jay Pritchett, a man who's made his
bundle, divorced his first wife, and finally found true happiness
with Gloria, a much younger Colombian woman who seems to have
bounced off the set of a risqué Univision quiz show. Her
10-year-old son Manny, who exhibits many of the traits of a
30-year-old Lothario, completes the first of the unusual family
units. The Dunphy household comprises Jay's daughter Claire, her
dorky husband Phil, and their three kids, Haley, Alex, and Luke.
Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) fancies himself a cool dad who's his
kids' best friend. But despite his zealous best intentions he's
really just an embarrassment, sometimes most of all to Claire
(Julie Bowen), who often treats him like her fourth child.
Household three is occupied by Jay's gay son Mitchell (Jesse
Tyler Ferguson) and his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), who
bring home an adopted Vietnamese baby in the pilot episode for
them and everyone else to fawn over. The comic combinations of
controlled nuclear family explosions precipitated by this
episodic mix are consistently filled with an unending string of
gags that burn the full range of comic fuel from gentle smiles to
full-on guffaws. There are nominal story threads (we're not in
the land of Seinfeld's "no hugging, no learning" edict), but most
of the entertainment comes from throwaway lines and the kind of
interaction that feels more like expert improv tossed off by
seasoned pros than it does scripted TV farce. There's also a fair
a of precisely executed physical comedy, especially around
the Dunphy household (Ty Burrell is highly skilled in the
practice of bodily buffoonery), and the show never shies away
from either playing up or laying to rest the stereotypes and
clichés it brings up with good-natured abandon. Gay people act
gay! Latin people are hot-blooded! Kids are stupid! Parents are
clueless!
It's also fun to see some famous faces appear as guests or in
cameo roles--Edward Norton, Minnie Driver, Elizabeth Banks,
Benjamin Bratt, Shelley Long--all of whom clearly get the joke
and are having a great time joining in (especially good is Fred
Willard, who was born to play Phil's dad). The four-disc set has
a limited number of special features that include some back story
bits about the actors and how some of the show's themes developed
from the real lives of the writers' real modern families. Best of
all are extended scenes and outtakes from the family interview
segments that only enhance the casual hilarity that rolls so
effortlessly from character to character throughout each episode.
It's easy to look forward to time spent in the company of the
Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan. --Ted Fry
